Illustrated thoughts on Torchwood (2x06 only)

[kaliha]

An aircraft hanger full of bus shelters?

Okay, now that really is very random thing to have in a warehouse, but I suppose they have to make loads of bus shelters and keep them somewhere for when the joyriding kids crash into them. Even so it's a very random thing to see. Also proves conclusively that Weevils are rubbish at hide and seek because it's trying to hide amongst what are, for all intents and purposes, transparent boxes.

Yes, Ma'am

As a small person mentioned to me, "she's not a man, she's Martha, she's got long hair and is a girl."

It must be terribly boring for Ianto being the friendly face of the Bay's most beautiful Tourist Information Centre. His flusteredness when he realised who Martha was made me laugh though.

He's so excited he's practically skipping with glee

It's no wonder the others look so confused.

Martha and Ianto are all co-ordinated. Bless

That's because they are the coolest people in the show, obviously.

with Freema Agyeman!

You know you've made it when you're a 'with'

" Still struggling to conquer your shyness"

Jack is so shy and retiring. Yay for the UNIT shout-out, it's nice to see that they're really not forgotten. Amused by the idea that Torchwood is 'more ad hoc'. Well, considering that they were set up purely to deal with the Doctor and his troublesome interfering ways. I think the jury is out on which organisation is prettier though. UNIT do win the best facial hair by a mile. (Don't believe me, go and find a pick of the Brig).

Ugh! eyes!

Okay, that's just horrible, and also amazingly clever, because no one would bother to check the eyeballs if an autopsy's carried out, not it they think it's toxic shock. But still, ugh! Eyes!

Now that's a wipe reminiscent of Star Wars

I've noticed that this series of Torchwood is having some stylistic changes done to the visuals. I can't stand the stupid juddering close-ups, they just make me feel a little bit motion sick, but they can do more Star Wars wipes because they always look cool. Fact.

The Chair and Treasurer of the End of the World Survivors Club

It's a very exclusive club, made up of Jack, the Jones' and whatever crew were left on the Valiant. It's nice to see some cross-pollination between the storylines of the two series, and that the effects from the missing year are still being felt, at least by some people.

I saw it and it was this big

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I think it's a good thing that Jack and Martha have moved on a bit from the Doctor. They shouldn't be spending their lives mooning after him, life's too short. But yes, they do miss him (and quite right too) and they will most likely drop everything to help him, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be off living their lives in the meantime.

I can see what you've done there

I can see why the Doctor recommended Martha to UNIT over Torchwood. UNIT are the acceptable face of alien investigation, there's a big enough support network that generally Martha should be fairly safe and UNIT are the Doctor's little fanclub. Torchwood on the other hand are, as an organisation, not fans of the Doctor and it's understandable that the Doctor doesn't want Martha finding that out. At least he can be fairly sure that Jack won't mention that to Martha if she pays occasional visit, and I'm quite sure that Jack is working on changing the original remit for Torchwood.

Plus Martha gets to wear berets as part of UNIT and berets are made of win.

Bless

Jack is really rather fond of Miss Jones

Jack – you're doing him wrong

Or rather, you're not doing him at all. Even they've noticed that they've not been subjected to the infamous Harkness lovin'

Although to be honest, this cap makes Martha look as if the idea of receiving some Jack!lovin' awful.

Ianto's angry face


Made me chuckle. As did his ridiculously girly scream when the pottery exploded beside him. You can't really blame him, but really, working in the job he does, he should expect to have things exploding in the office every now and then.

Owen and Martha what a team

They do work together surprisingly well.

I really like this picture


Ugh!flies!

I'm undecided as to if this is worse then being injected with bleach in your eyes.

They're all shiny and ugh in her stomach


Neato!

Neato? Blimey Jack, have you fallen through a crack in time to the Seventies? I bet he sported the full glam rock look in the Seventies – complete with glittery platforms.

Isn't that Torchwood House?

It doesn't close up but from a distance like that it really does.

JIM ROBINSON!

Poor Alan Dale. He's never going to escape being known as Jim Robinson. For those of us of a certain age he was the face of weekday teatimes (along with Kylie, Jason and Bouncer).

Trust me, I'm a doctor



I'd rely on Martha if the world was ending

And yes, he did. Again another nice little reminder of the parent series. And emphasis of the fact Jack is still keeping secrets from the team he trusts.

research!Ianto is scarily organised

I bet he likes doing filing and stuff too. It's just not right.

Martha's used to being invisible

A modified TARDIS key can be a very useful thing indeed. Just a shame she's not got it now. It would come in amazingly useful later on in the episode. I wonder if Jack got his back after Martha saved the world?

Oh Ianto, are you a little bit embarrassed?

Maybe he thought the whole him and Jack thing was a massive secret and there's Jack blabbing his mouth to the first new pretty girl to walk through the door. Bless.

We dabble...

O RLY?

Contact lens cameras - real skience!

It's so weird when the skiffy and the real world collide. Because the day this aired on BBC Three I was talking to a friend about the fact they had invented contact lenses that you could read your mobile phone text messages on. Here's the article which sparked our conversation. Just think we could be watching this very episode of Torchwood on our actual eyes.

The text is massively bulky though.

Oh no, two members of Team Torchwood are completely happy

A terrible curse is now going to kick in. TV dramas have to ward against perfect happiness and come down on it hard. But lets enjoy Tosh's happy face for the moment.


It's like having a wireless network in your eyes!

I wonder if hacking will be so easy with the real contact lens cameras? It may be something they'll have to look into protecting. As technology advances and advances you'll see people going back to bog standard Chubb locks because you can't hack into them WITH YOUR EYES!

Hacking for dummies

Is it really that easy to get remote access to stuff? And I thought Tosh said that their IT systems were way too cutting edge for a medical research facility. Seemingly not, if you can hack into them so easily.

Pharm break! Pharm break!

It's a bit like a Prison Break but without spending months tattooing the schematics of the building on your body.

That's a big bug

You'd need a massive roll of fly paper to catch that little darling.

Noes! they shot Martha!

What meanies. And right in the neck too. That's just not sporting. It's times like this that I bet Martha wishes she had her invisibility key.

Noes! they caught Martha!

Things are not looking good for our heroine.

Janet/Ianto

This is the ship for 2008. Forget your Tosh/Owen or Jack/Ianto's, the blossoming relationship between one man and the weevil he care for is going to be the big storyline. Honest.

Ridley Scott would like his iconic chest bursting image back please

It really is a very gory episode of Torchwood. You can just tell that that little scanner is going to be vitally important to the plot. It's not very subtly inserted into the plot.

That's just not nice :(


Reset :(

Poor Martha. I hope her Timey-Wimey white blood cells will be able to save her.

Hands up


Alien zoo

Two episodes with poor, misused aliens in 3 weeks. What high regard we have for our own race. :(

DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE

Team Torchwood exhibit their slightly incompetent side again. Maybe it should be pointed out here that Jack and Owen are men and do have problems multitasking. Rubbish.

It worked!

Which is very, very lucky. Bet Owen wouldn't be able to do it a second time though.

He shot Owen!



That'll learn him

Jack's revenge is swift and probably more merciful than he would have liked.

*sadface*

Oh noes, Owen!

It just goes to show how much public opinion (when I say public opinion I'm only going on the comments made by members of torch_wood) has changed when it comes to Owen this year. Whereas last year a good 75% of people would have gone "serves him right" the prevailing opinion was "oh no! Poor Owen." The bloke's still a complete git, but he's being written much better this year, so people can still dislike him, but feel sorry for him when things go bad.

In Conclusion
I think one of the strongest episodes of Torchwood to date. The acting from pretty much everyone was top-notch. We got bonus Martha and as a consequence of that more of the happy-smiley Doctor Who!Jack which is a Jack I do miss seeing sometimes. It's great seeing Martha so confident and fighting the good fight, and also the way everyone else interacts with her, although it's a bit of a shame there wasn't more Martha and Tosh screentime. Martha got lots of one on one scenes with everyone else. And Tosh typing on her eyes doesn't count.

For Torchwood it was quite tightly-plotted without too-much far-fetchedness, at least nothing that really jarred you out of the story anyway.

Quite possibly my favourite episode of Torchwood so far. Well done everyone!
9/10

Comments

[macphista.livejournal.com]

Oi. this logo is too familiar. Laziness or clue? We never know.

[sundayave.livejournal.com]

LAZ LABS! I hadn't noticed...therefore, I lose.

[macphista.livejournal.com]

Me neither! I just saw the cap and the penny dropped. I wonder if they're related. Nice touch if it was done on purpose! :D

[eumelkeks.livejournal.com]

I was waiting for your illustrated commentary. :D

I was a teensy bit annoyed by how often Jack told his team and us how Martha saved the world. One can overdo these things and I felt like, "Yeah, I got it. She is made of win." But all in all, I'm with you. It was nice to get these references.

[staceyuk.livejournal.com]

Yay! I've been waiting for this! LOL!

[lanaya1980.livejournal.com]

Did you see the Declassified that went with this ep? Even John Barrowman called Alan Dale "Jim". Amused me muchly.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

This was fun - a nice revisitation to an episode I enjoyed. My love of Martha is greater than ever. My love of Jack - ditto. (Nice to see him look happy, too.) And Torchwood the Team never looked so good.

[evilsushi.livejournal.com]

OWEN :(